As the News Chronicle folks will tell you...I was one of the few that said the guy just needed to mature a bit. Everyone forgot Josh Bidwell was pretty bad his first year, (cancer related) but blossomed his second year.

I think the difference is the ball. The pro ball is more like a bullet, hard and more narrow, than the college ball. Sander had the leg, he just didn't have the experience.

I'm not willing to hand him the job...it appears there will be many vets available...but this is encouraging.

This looks more promising than it once did but lets just keep him on the bench and not have to punt :lol:. Seriously though it appears as though he is showing a lot more promise than we once expected. I hope he get it all together and make the team but not just because he was the best of 3 crappy punters but because he deserves the job. Europe is magic for some guys all the realism without all the scrunity that goes with the NFL. It allows them to mature and not be called out by such a large number of people when things don't go well.

Does everyone know who lead NFL-E in punting this year while BJ Sander was pentultimate(that means second to last for those of you in Rio Linda)? It was the guy we cut last year...and was picked up by........the bottom feeding Vikings.

Travis Dorsch, that's the NFL-E leading punter. He also can kick off further than Longwell. But it is just another missed opportunity as are the 3rd, 4th, and 5th round picks in 04 spent on BJ Sander.

I'm not upset with B.J. as he had a good year in college and a nice signing bonus. What would he do say "No?"

I wish the kid well and you don't know for sure if the third rounder could have been a Mike McKenzie or Mike Flanagan, the fourth rounder would have been a Na'il Diggs or Josh Bidwell, and the fifth rounder been a Dorsey Levens or KGB.
We will never know if those picks could have been great. We do know they were worthless.

BJ Sander will be remembered as an example of Sherman as GM.
It is almost like a child of your spouses infidelity. You can't irrationally hate the kid, you want him to succeed but there is something that keeps you from your ultimate affection as a player.